examining the vision for space exploration this week on planetary radio. Hi everyone, welcome to Public Radio's travel show that takes you to the final

frontier.

I'm Matt Kaplan. In barely two weeks some of the most distinguished

voices in the American Space Exploration effort will gather at Stanford University to talk

about the future. Lou Friedman, the executive director of the Planetary Society,

joins us for a preview of this conference.

Bill Nye, the Science Guy, looks up in wonder at the clouds in the Martian sky.

Emily Lochuolus' Q&A will name names on Mercury,

and Bruce Vets has a year in space calendar

for the lucky winner of this week's space trivia contest,

along with a guide to What's Up in the Night's Sky for the rest of us.

Can you say 3-2-1 blast off?

Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic says we're getting closer to regularly scheduled space tourism.

The company's spaceship 2 and mothership White Night 2 are almost ready to be rolled out for

flight tests by Mojave California scaled composites.

You can see these beautiful birds at planetary.org.

I'll be right back with Lou Friedman.

Here's Bill Nye.

Hey, hey Bill Nye, the planetary guy here, Vice President of the Planetary Society.

And this week I'd like to talk again briefly about the light on Mars.

No, not really the light, the shadows on Mars. Now if you are a

student of Mars, I hope you are. You've seen shadows and pictures under the rocks but next the rocks on Mars but these

...